LAKELAND, Fla. – A group of atheists in Florida spent part of their weekend washing away a blessing placed upon a local highway by a religious group. Armed with brooms, mops and "unholy water," the atheists gathered Saturday to symbolically clean up holy oil that Polk Under Prayer put down on Highway 98 near the Pasco-Polk county line last year, Bay News 9 reported. "We come in peace," Humanists of Florida director Mark Palmer announced before he and members of other atheist organizations launched their cleanup.

Elmer Estepa, 54, says video camera gives better view than bus driver's viewA Deltona school bus driver was suspended after the school board said he didn't stop and investigate a cigarette lighter on the bus, which resulted in a middle school student lighting her own hair and another student's hair on fire. Elmer Estepa, 54, was suspended for two days without pay by the Volusia County School Board after a Deltona Middle School student was caught on bus camera lighting her own hair and another student's hair on fire in December. Another student also punched another student about a dozen...

A babysitter who sheriff's deputies say was supposed to pick up two boys from school but instead was found passed out on a couch was arrested Tuesday. He was accused of lying to law enforcement and prompting an all-out search for the boys. Philip Kenneth Landino, 48, was charged with providing false information to a law enforcement officer and resisting arrest without violence, according to the Marion County Sheriff's Office. Deputies Matthew L. Hooper and John Lightle had gone to the 20100 block of Southwest 59th Lane after receiving a report that two boys, ages 6 and 8, were missing...

Vincent Roberts, 52, of Pompano Beach, was arrested Friday and faces robbery and petit theft charges.Pompano Beach Police arrested the man they dubbed “Superman Bandit” after he made a clothing change and then robbed a Kentucky Fried Chicken. Vincent Roberts, 52, of Pompano Beach, was arrested Friday and faces robbery and petit theft charges. He was held on no bond because of a parole violation, according to online arrest records. On Feb. 17, deputies said Roberts entered the KFC at 341 W. Atlantic Blvd wearing blue pants, a striped blue, white polo shirt and a baseball cap. He then changed...

Christopher Phillips is being held in jail on $750.A Bradenton man was arrested after police said he put his mother in a headlock for using his taco sauce and salsa on her dinner. Christopher Phillips, 23, was arrested Monday and faces a charge of battery. He is being held on $750 bond, according to online Manatee County arrest records. Police said Phillips became upset with his mother, Rebecca Phillips, 55, when she used his sauce. He screamed in her face and she pushed him away, according to an incident report. The son then put his mother in a headlock, which...

New Port Richey, Fla. -- A 21-year-old New Port Richey man figured since he was going to jail anyways he'd show the officer just how mad he was, by throwing up on him. -snip- The officer arrived to find Trabucco in the front lawn on a laptop. Trabucco told the officer he was there to use the Internet. During a pat down, the officer found a prescription bottle containing 20 Percocet pills. Trabucco eventually admitted he didn't have a prescription for the pills and was placed under arrest. While enroute to the detention center, Trabucco put his face up against...

The driver was taken to a hospital with non-life threatening injuriesA car went through a concrete barrier on Interstate 595, went airborne for 200 feet and landed on its wheels, authorities said Tuesday. The car had exited southbound on Interstate 95 at State Road 84 before blasting through the barrier. The driver was taken to a hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

Basketball star taking on "Amos the Wonder Horse" at AAAA horse that shoots hoops is taking on a Harlem Globetrotters' star in Miami Monday in a game or H.O.R.S.E. for charity. The Globetrotters’ Buckets Blakes will be taking on "Amos the Wonder Horse" at the AmericanAirlines Arena Monday afternoon. The two will be playing with children from the American Heart Hereos, a group that works with children born with congenital heart disease. Buckets will give the children a sneak peek of the Globetrotters game that will be held March 10 at the Arena and give an honorary award to Amos,...

â€‹Tacos are a delicious concoction of tortilla, meats and cheeses. Harmonicas are a bluesy free reed wind instrument. It is best to never mix the two up. The consequences could be dire. Bruce Richard Hood, a 52-year-old resident of Sarasota County, seemed like a nice enough guy. He agreed to give a guy he met at a bar a lift home, and even agreed to stop at a Taco Bell so the man could get a bag of tacos. The passenger's sobriety was not mentioned in later news reports, but apparently he was in a state where he easily mixed...

The sign went up late Friday, when the kids were out of school. Black letters on a white board perched over the parking lot at Lakewood High. Patricia Schley, the school's literacy coach, was trying to promote a training session for parents. She wanted to show them how to help their teens become better readers. She had scheduled the evening event for more than a month before the FCATs. Wednesday night — the extra day of the leap year — would be literacy night. Lakewood High, on the southeastern end of St. Petersburg, is home to about 1,400 students. Almost...

A federal judge has tossed out a Golden Gate Estates man's lawsuit, ruling Naples Police officers did not violate his right to free speech when they arrested him for growling and wearing a gorilla suit with the N-word at a 2007 Martin Luther King Day celebration. Because patrons at Cambier Park complained about Michael L. Anderson, U.S. District Court Judge Paul Magnuson ruled police had probable cause to arrest him when he returned and yelled after being told to leave. "Although wearing the costume alone may be insufficient to rise to the level of a breach of the peace or...

The launch of an expensive new basketball shoe — timed to Orlando's hosting of the NBA All-Star Game — triggered a huge melee Thursday night at the Florida Mall that was put down by deputies in riot gear. The wild scene erupted about 9:30 p.m. after hundreds of people packed the mall's parking lot hoping to buy the new shoe at midnight Thursday. As the crowd got bigger and bigger, a large contingent of Orange County Sheriff's Office deputies was on on-hand, braced for problems. Similar shoe releases have caused violence at shoe stores across the country. Witnesses told the...

The picture is shocking and unbelievable. Last year, a mug shot surfaced showing a man, picked up on suspicion of soliciting a prostitute, with only half a head. It was taken by the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s office: And it’s not a hoax. Now, the man behind the photo has surfaced again, this time explaining how he got his injury.

CHIEFLAND (CBSMiami) – A Chiefland man’s cunning plan to hold up a convenience store with a knife all went south, according to police, when his wheelchair got stuck in the sand behind the store when he tried to make his get away. The Chevron clerk told police that 22-year old John Christopher Champion, who was wearing a Gators hat and Gators sweatshirt, had been going in and out of the store for several hours in his motorized wheelchair. Just before 10 p.m., the clerk said Champion piloted his chair behind the counter and demanded cash from the register as he...

Getting to Hollywood takes talent. For a local man attempting to get a free ride back to Hollywood, Fla., his acting chops won him a free ride to prison after he lied about a carjacking to get a complimentary police escort home. An incident report provided to CBS Tampa by the Port St. Lucie Police Department said that, on Feb. 9, Hector Felix, Jr. reported a carjacking by phone. In the process of responding to the scene, Florida Highway Patrol troopers and the United States Marshall’s Office were informed of the alleged incident. “Due to Hector indicating to the Marshall’s...

Call it a case of mistaken plant identity. A 15-year-old boy climbed into Angela Cartwright's kitchen window thinking to make off with a marijuana plant, but instead the young thief was actually stealing a potted tomato plant, a sheriff's arrest report shows. As he was running from Cartwright's house on Carmen Avenue near Holly Hill on Feb. 10 just after 7 a.m., the teen even yelled at Cartwright, "See, I have one of your pot plants!" the arrest report states. Cartwright had arrived at her residence that morning after leaving her 6-year-old son off at the school bus stop. When...

A Sunny Isles man apparently had no idea he was the subject of news reports across the country when Broward Sheriff's detectives arrested him Friday wearing a $6,500 Rolex watch that investigators say was stolen last month from a passenger at an airport security checkpoint. Igor Adrian Ramos, 37, was charged with grand theft and was being questioned Friday afternoon at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport by Broward Sheriff's detectives who are based there. "Crime Stoppers tips confirmed what detectives were finding at the same time," Broward Sheriff's Spokesman Jim Leljedal said. "Through the investigation, they had narrowed it down to...

STUART, Fla. - A 28-year-old man accused of having cocaine in his buttocks and nose was arrested following tips from informants and instructions to squat, according to recently released records. Ramon H. Blair was arrested Feb. 13 after a Martin County Sheriff's deputy learned from an informant that a man with $100 worth of crack cocaine "on his person" would be with a woman in a white Pontiac with no hubcaps.

The ruling stipulates flowers, bowling, and Red Lobster.Just in time for Valentine's Day, a Florida judge ruled on Tuesday that a man involved in a scuffle with his wife treat her to an evening at a local bowling alley and a romantic meal at Red Lobster. Judge John Hurley ordered that Joseph Bray, 47 and his wife Sonja, 39, also visit a marriage counselor. Hurley handed down this ruling instead of setting bond or slapping Bray with a prison sentence after he deemed domestic violence charges leveled by Bray's wife to be "very, very minor." According to Bray's arrest affidavit,...